How do I install the Jump Cut skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add jperrello/jump-cut in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Jump Cut safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Jump Cut?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Jump Cut free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Jump Cut?

jperrello (@jperrello) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Jump Cut by jperrello — Agent Skill

Name: Jump Cut
Author: jperrello

Jump Cut

Manufacture "multi-cam" hard cuts on static talking-head stretches by alternating a base framing with tighter punch-in reframings of the SAME speaker, each cut snapped to a word start so it lands on speech. Deterministic, no Claude. Timeline-preserving — audio is copied untouched and total duration is identical, so every downstream timestamp (captions, b-roll windows) stays valid. Runs on the 1080x1920 vertical clip AFTER fill-vertical and BEFORE zoom-punch/broll/burn-subtitles, so cutaways override their own windows and captions burn on top. The visual-change-density lever for sources where b-roll stays sparse.

jperrello 5c4df0d 3 files · 9.8 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

jump-cut

Single-camera podcast footage reads as one long static crop between cutaways. Top short-form editors break that up with frequent hard cuts between framings of the same speaker — a fake "multi-cam" rhythm that keeps the frame changing even with no new footage. This skill manufactures that churn deterministically.

Invoke

.claude/skills/jump-cut/jump-cut.sh <in.mp4> <transcript.json> <out.mp4> [seg_secs=3.2]

in.mp4: the 1080x1920 vertical clip (post fill-vertical)
transcript.json: the clip-local word-timed transcript (cuts snap to word starts)
seg_secs: target segment length / cut rhythm (default 3.2s)

How it works

plan.py tiles [0, dur] into segments at ~`seg_secs` spacing, each boundary snapped to the nearest word start within 0.7s so the cut lands ON speech.
Segments alternate base (full frame, unchanged) and punch (a centered ~1.11–1.16x reframe biased to the upper third). The cold-open lead (2.6s, the title) and the tail (1.5s, the landing) stay base for a stable open/close.
One ffmpeg pass: split → per-segment trim+crop/scale → concat. Video is concatenated; audio is mapped straight from the source with -c:a copy, so duration and every downstream timestamp are preserved exactly.

Placement rules

count = clamp by seg_secs rhythm, capped at JUMP_CUT_MAX (default 8) cuts
clips shorter than JUMP_CUT_MIN (default 13s) → passthrough (no churn)
first 2.6s (cold-open title) and last 1.5s excluded
min 1.6s between cuts after snapping (never seasick)

Pipeline order

fill-vertical → jump-cut → zoom-punch → chunk-captions → broll-pick → broll-composite → burn-subtitles → …

It must touch only the clean vertical: b-roll cutaways replace the full frame in their windows (overriding the reframe underneath) and captions burn on top, so neither warps. Non-fatal (any failure → passthrough), idempotent (.jcmeta mtime+param signature), JUMP_CUT=0 disables.

Env

JUMP_CUT — 0 disables (passthrough). Default on.
JUMP_CUT_SEG — cut rhythm in seconds (default 3.2; also positional arg 4).
JUMP_CUT_MAX — max reframe cuts per clip (default 8).
JUMP_CUT_MIN — min clip duration to activate (default 13.0s).
JUMP_CUT_LEAD / JUMP_CUT_TAIL — stable open/close reserve (default 2.6 / 1.5).

---name: jump-cutdescription: Manufacture "multi-cam" hard cuts on static talking-head stretches by alternating a base framing with tighter punch-in reframings of the SAME speaker, each cut snapped to a word start so it lands on speech. Deterministic, no Claude. Timeline-preserving — audio is copied untouched and total duration is identical, so every downstream timestamp (captions, b-roll windows) stays valid. Runs on the 1080x1920 vertical clip AFTER fill-vertical and BEFORE zoom-punch/broll/burn-subtitles, so cutaways override their own windows and captions burn on top. The visual-change-density lever for sources where b-roll stays sparse.---# jump-cutSingle-camera podcast footage reads as one long static crop between cutaways.Top short-form editors break that up with frequent hard cuts between framings ofthe same speaker — a fake "multi-cam" rhythm that keeps the frame changing evenwith no new footage. This skill manufactures that churn deterministically.## Invoke```.claude/skills/jump-cut/jump-cut.sh <in.mp4> <transcript.json> <out.mp4> [seg_secs=3.2]```- `in.mp4`: the 1080x1920 vertical clip (post fill-vertical)- `transcript.json`: the clip-local word-timed transcript (cuts snap to word starts)- `seg_secs`: target segment length / cut rhythm (default 3.2s)## How it works- `plan.py` tiles `[0, dur]` into segments at ~`seg_secs` spacing, each boundary snapped to the nearest word start within 0.7s so the cut lands ON speech.- Segments alternate **base** (full frame, unchanged) and **punch** (a centered ~1.11–1.16x reframe biased to the upper third). The cold-open lead (2.6s, the title) and the tail (1.5s, the landing) stay base for a stable open/close.- One ffmpeg pass: `split` → per-segment `trim`+`crop`/`scale` → `concat`. Video is concatenated; **audio is mapped straight from the source with `-c:a copy`**, so duration and every downstream timestamp are preserved exactly.## Placement rules- count = clamp by `seg_secs` rhythm, capped at `JUMP_CUT_MAX` (default 8) cuts- clips shorter than `JUMP_CUT_MIN` (default 13s) → passthrough (no churn)- first 2.6s (cold-open title) and last 1.5s excluded- min 1.6s between cuts after snapping (never seasick)## Pipeline order`fill-vertical` → **`jump-cut`** → `zoom-punch` → `chunk-captions` → `broll-pick`→ `broll-composite` → `burn-subtitles` → …It must touch only the clean vertical: b-roll cutaways replace the full frame intheir windows (overriding the reframe underneath) and captions burn on top, soneither warps. Non-fatal (any failure → passthrough), idempotent (`.jcmeta`mtime+param signature), `JUMP_CUT=0` disables.## Env- `JUMP_CUT` — `0` disables (passthrough). Default on.- `JUMP_CUT_SEG` — cut rhythm in seconds (default 3.2; also positional arg 4).- `JUMP_CUT_MAX` — max reframe cuts per clip (default 8).- `JUMP_CUT_MIN` — min clip duration to activate (default 13.0s).- `JUMP_CUT_LEAD` / `JUMP_CUT_TAIL` — stable open/close reserve (default 2.6 / 1.5).

Frequently asked questions